


The Cliff and the Cloven

by Liara_90



Series: A Home of Sticks [8]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Gen, One Shot, POV Female Character, POV Third Person, Post-Volume 5 (RWBY)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-10 16:52:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15295905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liara_90/pseuds/Liara_90
Summary: After the events of Volume 5, Raven pays a visit to an old friend.Short and somber.





	The Cliff and the Cloven

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Silmerion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silmerion/gifts).



* * *

“Hello, Rose,” Raven began.

It had been an old joke between them, back when STRQ was more than just a faded photograph and bittersweet memories. Raven had always thought ‘ _Summer_ ’ was a stupid name - it sounded too poetic, metaphorical to the point of made-up. She’d insisted on calling her team leader by the more-respectable _Rose_ well into their second year.

Blades of grass crumpled underfoot as Raven crossed the cliffside path. Not a soul to be seen.

Of course, it hadn’t just been the silliness of ‘ _Summer_ ’ that had kept Raven from using it. Surnames offered a degree of emotional separation, a formality to fight against familiarity. She’d entered the halls of Beacon solemnly sworn not to become emotionally attached, to remain indifferent to the places and people she was to learn from.

Raven found herself standing a few feet from the granite headstone, a sharp wind drawing moisture from her eye. She wiped it away. _That plan failed rather fucking spectacularly, didn’t it?_

Crouching low, Raven’s finger trailed along the engraved petal. Dirt and moss were accumulating in some of the inlays, which she made a half-hearted effort to wipe clean. Judging by the detritus, Tai hadn’t made his way out here anytime recently, which Raven was wordlessly grateful for. Better for his safety and her privacy.

Raven exhaled, lowering herself to the grass, plucking a blade from the dirt. She’d only been here once before, with Taiyang and Qrow, shortly after the stone in front of her had been consecrated. The emotions had still been too raw, though, and they’d parted on bitter terms. It had been the last time the three of them had been together, the end of STRQ’s speaking terms.

Raven’s eyes remained focused on the bit of green between her fingers, her mind a million miles away. When she spoke, the weariness of the past few weeks seeped into her voice like acid. “So things really went to shit.”

And that wasn’t the half of it. Her mind was still struggling to reconcile the recent events. Vernal was dead. And so was Salem’s latest puppet, the girl who’d called herself Fall. Ozpin was back, and now he had the Relic of Knowledge. Thanks to Qrow and... _Yang_.

Raven flicked the blade of grass aside, staring back at Summer’s marker. It wasn’t actually a grave, not really, as they had had no body to bury. Deep in her subconscious, Raven was thankful. It was the tradition of her tribe to bury their dead in unmarked plots, without witnesses or ceremony. Given their nomadic nature, almost nobody knew where anybody was buried, and they didn’t care to ask. Doing so would have been a gross taboo, akin to exhumation in Vale or Atlas. The whole _idea_ of graveyards - vast tracts of land with thousands of bodies buried just underfoot - had thoroughly unnerved the freshman Raven, to the bemusement of Tai.

Summer had never teased her about it, though. Summer had understood. She always did.

“Ozpin’s playing his usual games,” Raven continued, though her voice lacked its typical edge. “Qrow’s still with him, because of course he is. Guess he wasn’t just trying to get into your pants after all.” Raven let slip a half-grin. She’d long ago teased, then later reproached, Qrow for throwing his lot in so willingly with the wizard. Entwining his life with Summer’s, quite coincidentally, he’d insisted. “We fought. And not... just...” A note of embarrassment entered her voice “.... with words. I’m sorry about that. Things... got out of hand.”

Had Summer Rose been standing before her, she no doubt would have reprimanded Raven for the weakness of her excuse, for fighting _against_ another member of STRQ. She’d taken her Team Leader duties very seriously, after all, and infighting was basically blasphemy.

But the cliffside was silent.

“Salem’s got some new minions. Even her own Maiden. _Had_ her own Maiden. The rest were a handful. Hazel’s there, too.” Raven rubbed her face. “Couldn’t do anything about him, sorry. Maybe Oz’s crew got him. They’ve certainly got spirit.”

A snort escaped Raven. “Little Ruby’s all grown up. _Gods_ , she’s a spitting image of you. Uses this _monstrous_ scythe that’s like twice her size.” She sniffled. “You’d be proud, Summer.”

And then something _angry_ swelled in Raven’s chest, unexpectedly and without warning. She felt for the mask perched atop her head, knocking it off with a clumsy swipe. It tumbled to the dirt, visage-down, leaving Raven’s hands free to clutch at her hair.

“Yang hates me. I mean, no fucking surprise, right?” Raven glared at Summer’s headstone, as if expecting an answer. “And she’s sure as shit Tai’s kid. Looks like saving her life from Torchwick’s little pet didn’t buy me a lot of goodwill.”

Raven opened her mouth, beginning to say ‘ _wait, you don’t know about Roman Torchwick, do you?_ ’, before she shut it with a snarl. Of course Summer didn’t know about Roman. She was dead. Killed years before that pompous ass and his creepy girl had ever appeared on anyone’s radar. It didn’t fucking matter that Raven had never narrated that to a chunk of stone, because _Summer Rose_ was never going to know about fucking _Roman Torchwick_.

Raven grabbed a handful of grass and ripped it from the soil, grains of dirt falling onto her. And then she exhaled.

“Yeah, Yang hates me. She’s fallen in with Ozpin’s crowd, same as we did. I saved her life during some shitstorm in Mountain Glenn. Then she got her arm cut off by a White Fang nutjob. She came to my camp looking for a portal to Qrow. It’s... a long story.” One she had no particular interest in retelling. Raven flung the remaining bits of dirt from her hand. “Let’s just say that we don’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things. I tried to do the right thing. That’s what counts, right?”

_What the fuck do you want me to do, Summer?_ She had been _so happy_ when she’d found out that Raven was pregnant. Despite Raven’s misgivings of her own motherhood, Summer had been so damn sure that everything would work out. That Raven would make an excellent mom. It hadn’t been Summer’s usual sunny optimism either, _no_ \- this was something she’d genuinely _believed_ , heart and soul.

“Well,” said Raven, resuming her dialogue, “you also thought you’d get to play Auntie, didn’t you? Looks like I get to say ‘ _told you so_ ’ after all.”

Yeah, that was a fucking bittersweet argument to win.

“I’ve got to get back to the tribe,” Raven finally declared, though her voice was weary, and her face in her hands. “Salem will be looking for us again, as soon as she figures out what happened in Haven. Maybe Oz can keep her occupied.” Raven sighed. She’d have to break the news about Vernal. Tribesmen died all the time - it was just a reality of outlaw life - but this loss was... _different_. More than anyone, Vernal had been someone Raven had taken under her wing. Even if her entire existence had been to serve as a decoy, Vernal’s death was acutely felt. Raven’s third chance at guardianship: as failed as her first two.

Raven knelt up, wiping a bit more grime from the headstone. “I know - not going to get anything done sitting around here.” She wiped away a wetness by her eye. “I need a moment to breathe, though. Not all of us are as strong as you, you know.”

She grinned half-heartedly, a finger tracing the _S_ in ‘ _scatter_ ’.

And then she picked up her mask, pulling herself to her feet.

“Good talking to you, Summer,” Raven declared, “I needed that.” She brushed a bit of dirt from her skirt, flecks falling to the ground. “See you around.”

And a solitary raven crossed the sky over Patch.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for your readership. Please feel free to leave any comments, thoughts, feedback, or headcanons in the comments. Criticism is the only way I’ll ever get better as a writer. If you’d like to know more about me/my writing, feel free to hit up my [About](http://www.pvoberstein.tumblr.com/about) page. I’m also active on both [reddit](https://www.reddit.com/user/pvoberstein/overview) and [Tumblr](http://www.pvoberstein.tumblr.com/), and can be reached through any of the means on my [Contact](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liara_90/profile) page.
> 
> Wrote this because (a) it’s been too damn long and (b) and old biography I’m reading has fueled my sub-creating instincts. I wrote this in basically one sitting, so my apologies if it’s a little uneven, but it’s been simmering in my mind for a while.


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